Another Underground Tour

After facing an unexpected trip change, I almost didn't make it to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky, one of my planned stops. But fortunately, I made it, along with a big group of friends and family. And being in the largest cave in the world sure was a great experience. I had already visited two cave national parks, Wind Cave and Jewel Cave, so I thought Mammoth Cave wouldn't be all that different. But of course, the national parks taught me yet another lesson on the diversity of American landscapes and park experiences, even underground ones.

First off, Mammoth Cave is a very busy, very popular park in the hill country of central Kentucky. Along with the cave, the park has much land above ground to explore, including the Green River and 84 miles of trails through the rolling green hills. But, as one can expect, the cave is the main attraction. To go in the cave, you must join one of the several available ranger guided tours. What I thought was so neat about this park compared to the other two was the number and variety of tours. The other cave parks had a couple tours, but Mammoth Cave had 13 tours to choose from that all explore the cave differently, either through different passages or in a different way. For example, there's a tour that is only lit by traditional 19th century lanterns, just like the original explorers. And there's "wild" tours that are a full day of squeezing through the most inaccessible parts of the cave. Plus, there's many above ground programs and walks.

The tour we went on was the Historic Tour. This tour focused on historically significant stories of the cave. We first passed by several pieces of abandoned saltpeter mining equipment. Saltpeter was used to make gunpowder, and the ranger informed us that almost all of the gunpowder used during the War of 1812 could be traced back to Mammoth Cave. We also passed by a lot of smoke written names. When Mammoth Cave was a private tourist attraction, tour guides would let visitors write their names on the cave walls with candle smoke. The guides during this time were slaves, and they could make money from tips from the visitors. So, they became savvy businessmen and charged for novelty souvenirs like the smoke writing or eyeless fish from the underground river. These early guides also contributed a lot to the exploration of the cave. They discovered many of the most popular sections of cave.

Our tour through Mammoth Cave was a great time. It differed from Wind Cave and Jewel Cave mainly by its mammoth size. The pathways were much less claustrophobic, except for the stretch dubbed "Fat Man's Misery." And the tour group was much bigger than Jewel and Wind Caves. Like I said before, Mammoth Cave tours are very popular and we had over 100 people on just our tour group. And with only one ranger leading, I didn't have the more one-on-one experience to talk with the ranger like tours with just a dozen people. And, a lot of time was taken out of the tour to allow everyone to catch up and regroup before the ranger could tell her next story. Despite the negatives of the larger tour, we had an exciting time exploring the dark, cold, and huge cave. Plus, it is very encouraging to see so many people interested in touring a National Park; that's what they're there for after all, "the benefit and enjoyment of the people."